Toughness works if disciplined

I have worked in the field of industrial management, never adopted diplomacy as my management style, and have been pretty successful in my profession. The essence of my management style had been toughness with highest order of discipline – first for the self and then for the others. Indeed, toughness can’t work without self-discipline.

For toughness in management, there have to be well-defined values and sticking to these by the manager. It is some sort of ruthlessness in honoring values and being objective in decision-making. Such toughness projects an image of the manager as a non-compromising person on principles and everyone around tries to give due regard to the manager and his/her stand. Even in practical life, image of person works much more than the person him/herself. This is true to more extent in business field. Whole of credit-rating system and brand-loyalty work, the two key ingredients of marketing, on this imaging.

Image-building is a time-consuming process and and requires sustenance on values and it is like a business investment paying later with premium. So, have patience in expecting others’ recognition of your image and its working for you. Toughness without self-discipline proves to be counter-productive and hollowness of one’s personality becomes obvious soon. For the indisciplined, diplomacy is the safe den.

[The article has been contributed by Ram Bansal. An Engineer by profession, now at 62, he lives in his native village to work for his own people. He is a determined atheist and goes by logic and his own convictions.]